Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds credited President Trump late Tuesday with helping her state recover from a high-wind derecho that destroyed millions of acres of crops on Aug. 10.
“Iowans did what you expect Iowans to do. They helped each other. They took care of each other. And they still are,” Ms. Reynolds, a Republican, said. “But someone else also had our back: Our president.”
She said Mr. Trump gave her a call the day after the storm featuring winds over 100 mph, and that Vice President Mike Pence visited later in the week.
The governor said the aid comes on top of Mr. Trump’s help after floods devastated communities along the Missouri River in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri.
Some Democrats criticized Mr. Trump for approving the aid a full week after the storm and stopping for only a brief period on his way to campaign stops in other states.
Ms. Reynolds said Mr. Trump got there fast enough.
“When the winds had finished raging and the cleanup had only begun, he showed up,” she said.
The president put Iowa in the red column in 2016 after President Obama nabbed it in successive elections. But Democrats view the state as a potential pickup for former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, as polls show the president leading by only a percentage point or two.
Mr. Trump doesn’t want it to slip away and has highlighted his work to clean up the storm and bolster America’s corn farmers, pointing to large purchases from China in recent weeks.
“Whether it’s providing needed relief to farmers who were the target of China’s unfair trade practices, hammering out new free — and fair — trade deals, or fighting for workers and small businesses who were hit hard by COVID-19, we have a President and an administration who gets things done,” Ms. Reynolds said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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